Method for providing additional information associated with an object visually present in media content

1. A method for creating interactive media content having additional information associated with an object visually present in media content, said method comprising the steps of: receiving media content in an authoring tool that is capable of receiving input from an author to create interactivity for objects visually present in the media content when the media content is played; defining a default resolution to import the media content into the authoring tool; scaling the media content within the authoring tool to display at the default resolution so that the authoring tool and the media content have a 1:1 correspondence for a coordinate grid; establishing an interactive element corresponding to the object visually present in the media content, the interactive element is defined by element parameters, the element parameters comprise a plurality of (X, Y) coordinates that define a shape and an object time corresponding to a duration that the shape is present at the coordinates; establishing object metadata for the object and associating the object metadata with the interactive element; creating a portable package for distribution that includes the default resolution, the element parameters and the object metadata such that when the portable package is accessed through a customer viewer, the object metadata will retrieve the additional information about the object.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the step of establishing the interactive element further comprises establishing a boundary for the shape and adding a shape tolerance to the shape to define a modified shape boundary.

3. A method as set forth in claim 2 wherein the shape tolerance is a minimum of a 10% increase of an area of the shape.

4. A method as set forth in claim 2 further including the step of defining an observation focus that corresponds to the modified shape boundary and monitoring the observation focus for movement of the object.

5. A method as set forth in claim 4 further comprising the step of establishing new element parameters in response to detecting movement within the observation focus and updating the observation focus with the new element parameters.

6. A method as set forth in claim 5 wherein the new element parameters include new (X, Y) coordinates and a new time object time.

7. A method as set forth in claim 1 further including the step of defining a center point for the shape and monitoring the center point as the media content progresses.

8. A method as set forth in claim 7 wherein the center point is selectable from within the authoring tool to relocate the shape.

9. A method as set forth in claim 7 further including the step of estimating a path of movement for the object based on monitoring the center point.

10. A method for providing additional information associated with an object visually present in media content when interacted with by a user on a user device, said method comprising the steps of: receiving a request for a portable package, the portable package including an interactive element corresponding to the object visually present in the media content and object metadata that is associated with the interactive element, wherein the interactive element is defined by element parameters comprising a plurality of (X, Y) coordinates that define a shape and an object time corresponding to a duration that the shape is present at the coordinates; receiving device information including at least one of a type of the user device, a device orientation, a device resolution or combinations thereof; delivering the portable package and the media content to the user device based on the request; receiving a selection time and a selection coordinate for a selection event that occurred within a customer viewer; scaling the element parameters for the interactive element based on the device information; parsing the portable package to determine whether the selection time corresponds to the object time, and if the selection time corresponds with the object time, further parsing the portable package to determine whether the selection coordinate is within the scaled element parameters; and retrieving the object metadata if the selection coordinates are within the scaled element parameters such that the additional information is displayable to the user on the user device.

11. A method as set forth in claim 10 further including the step of establishing an interceptor cooperating with the customer viewer to intercept selection events by the user.

12. A method as set forth in claim 10 wherein the step of further parsing the portable package to determine whether the selection coordinate is within the element parameters is further defined as establishing a vertical line through the selection coordinate and determining a number of shape boundaries that are intersected by the vertical line.

13. A method as set forth in claim 12 further including the step of determining the selection event is within the interactive element in response to intersecting an odd number of shape boundaries when moved away in one direction from the selection event.

14. A method as set forth in claim 10 wherein the step of receiving the device information is further defined as receiving the device information at a viewer application server and the view application server scales the interactive elements.

15. A method as set forth in claim 10 wherein the step of scaling the element parameters is further defined as being performed in response to detecting the selection event from the user.

16. A method as set forth in claim 10 wherein the step of scaling the element parameters is further defined as dynamically scaling the element parameters or having a preset scale.

17. A method as set forth in claim 10 wherein the step of scaling the element parameters is further includes the step of comparing an original aspect ratio to a viewer aspect ratio to scale the element parameters.